Under a Violet Moon
by Knight-Dawn
Summary: Zutara Week 2014. Collection of One Shots. One: In which Zuko is worried about someone. Two: In which a new arrival is celebrated. Three: In which Zuko earns the nickname "speedy." Four: That was the moment he began to love her. Five: In which they each came to the same conclusion separately. Six: In which Zuko learns more Water Tribe traditions. Seven: Katara is far more graceful.
1. Melancholy

**Author's Note:** This one grew from the seed that started it. Warning: does contain spoilers for the Search trilogy, which has sort of merged into my personal fanon of how Zuko and Katara get together. There's not a lot of romance in this one, but sometimes love is about the subtle ways you show someone you care about them.

Hope you like it!

**One: Meloncholy**

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><p>It is raining outside the small hut they have claimed for the night as Katara makes dinner and Zuko stares out the window. One leg sits up on the sill as the other dangles out, dampened by the rain. "The rain is good," she says, hoping to make conversation – filling his bowl with the soup she has made. "It means the droughts are over, right?"<p>

The Fire Nation has had a hard dry spell. When Zuko got word of how the outlying villages were struggling, he had told the palace staff to only cook what they needed, nothing extravagant. The other nobles whispered of how stingy Fire Lord Zuko was being, but Katara knew the truth. She'd heard him yell at the cook in a fit of misplaced anger -

"People are starving out there, yet you made me a four course meal? I don't need it! No one here does! I refuse to put on another banquet until the drought is over, do you hear me?"

What he didn't tell them was how he'd been there before himself. He'd gone hungry many a night in the Earth Kingdom. Even Katara remembered how thin he'd looked when the Gaang had met with him and his uncle in that ghost town.

The droughts were only half the reason they had come here, though – Zuko figured if he was away from the palace, then the nobles would stop their whispers. Besides, between the two of them, they could spread Earth Kingdom irrigation techniques to the villages that were being hit the hardest. It was just one more way that the balance was being returned to the world, the nations helping each other.

The other reason, Katara knew, was why Zuko wasn't speaking.

She stood up and brought the bowl to him, resting a hand on his shoulder to get his attention. When he turned his face to her, his eyes were those of a man much older than his nineteen years. "Thanks," he whispered, taking the soup and eating a mouthful as she sat beside him and looked out at the rain.

"I'm sure she's alive, Zuko," Katara finally sighed. "Just because we haven't heard anything doesn't mean she's dead. Azula is stronger than that."

His sister hadn't been heard from since the day she'd run off into the Forgotten Valley, and despite all the hatred between them, Katara knew Zuko was concerned.

"She may be strong," Zuko finally said, a sigh escaping him, "but right now, she's also... broken. If she is alive out there... who knows what state she's in right now."

Katara didn't know what to say to that, so she said nothing. Zuko ate a bit more, then stopped, staring into his bowl instead. "Is it bad," he asked, "that I'm not sure I _want_ to find her? That... I'm scared to find her alive, because she's probably going to fight me again. But I don't want to find her dead, either. Agni – Is it bad that I still love her, even though I hate what she is?"

Katara shook her head, tentative but sure. Her hands met his and stayed there, feeling the warmth radiate from his skin. "No, it's not bad, Zuko. It's just complicated. Love... usually is." She swallowed hard at that, and then sighed, bowing her head. "Remember what you told your mother. That you still have _hope_ for her."

"Yeah," Zuko muttered, looking back out at the rain. "At least she knows what she is."


	2. Jubilant

**Author's Note: **Okay, I'm sure "children are Zuko's happiness" has been done a lot, and I know Kya and Roku (and maybe even Lu-Ten) are not the most original names for their babies… But they're the names I see them having anyway, so there they are. What isn't jubilant about a little father-children bonding time at the turtleduck pond?

**Jubilant**

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><p>Katara will never cease to smile whenever she glances out the palace windows and happens to catch sight of Zuko sitting by the turtleduck pond with one of their children, or more than one of them. Even though Ten-Ten is still just a little bundle in his father's arms, she can always tell by the way Zuko sits against the tree when he's cradling him there, just so.<p>

Today is a very special day, though. Katara picked up the end of her skirt, going over to stand beside the tree. "Zuko, our guests will be here soon. You know they all planned it out so they'd make it on the same day - "

"Yes, I know," he said, smiling up at her. "I still wanted to spend some time with the kids before all the craziness starts."

"It's not craziness, it's just our friends and family coming to visit - "

"With our friends and family, it's crazy," Zuko laughed, standing up carefully and pecking a quick, tender kiss to her cheek. "I'll go prepare to meet them now, alright? Kya, Roku... make sure you behave yourselves this time."

Katara couldn't help but laugh at the sheepish glance the two shared. Oh, last time there was a major gathering Kya had managed to set fire to the curtains while playing, which Roku tried to cover up with a little tea-bending of his own... Suffice to say it left both of them getting a talking to from their great-uncle Iroh.

Just as Katara was guiding the kids into the entrance hall, the first guests were announced. She smiled at the spring in her husband's step as he walked to the doors and they opened to reveal Lady Ursa and her family. "Welcome back, Mom," Zuko chuckled, as Kya and Roku ran to hug her as well.

"Gran-Gran!" Kya grinned. "I can't wait to show you my newest forms!"

"And I can't wait to see them, sweetie," Ursa laughed, hugging Kya and Roku tight. "And your little brother's forms as well. I'm sure your parents have been teaching you both very well." She finally let go of them and stood up to get a better look at the new arrival – just barely a week old. "Aw, he's so tiny..."

Zuko laughed at that a little. "Well, he was born a little early – but the healers and Katara both say he's fine, just a little small." Another reason Zuko would hardly let the little bundle out of his sight – he was still worried about him.

Ursa smiled as her gaze fell on Katara. "Well, I'm sure his mother will keep a watchful eye on him. You know how mothers are, after all."

Zuko laughed again, then grinned at his mother. "Yeah, well, I don't think you want to get on the wrong side of this papa platapusbear either. I bite, too."

"Oooh, scary," Ursa laughed, before finally hugging her son tight, too. "I missed you, Zuko."

"I missed you, too, Mom."


	3. Motorcycle

****Author's Note:**** Considering that Satomobiles were a relatively modern invention, this has to be set sometime after the incidents with Yakone… Which would put the Gaang in their late twenties or early thirties. But who says Zuko and Katara can't still want a thrill every now and then after settling down?

**Motorcycle**

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><p>"Zuko! Zuko, lookout! Zuuuko!" Katara found herself clinging to her husband tighter and tighter as he kept speeding along the roads of Republic City on their shiny new Satocycle, still refusing to slow down despite her repeated requests.<p>

"Hang on, Katara!" He said, making another sharp turn.

That was it! She dug her hands into his chest in protest. "Zuko! Zuko, think of the _kids_ – I think they want us to come home tonight!"

"Fine, fi - "

And que the sound of sirens flaring up behind them. Katara frowned, and Zuko glanced over his shoulder to see the police. "Oh, for crying out loud - "

"Don't say I didn't warn you," Katara muttered, rolling her eyes.

Zuko rolled his eyes, too, then hit the gas pedal.

"Zuko?! Zuko, no!"

Of course, he didn't listen. He was lucky enough to pull a couple fast ones on the officers... Though of course Katara gave him the lecture of his life when they got home. The kids just peeked out over one of the couches, unsure what to say since it was clear their father had brought out the side of their mother that was the reason aunt Toph called her "Sugar Queen."

Speaking of Toph...

A few days later, when they were at the council meeting they'd come to Republic City to attend in the first place, it only took one off-handed comment from Toph about Zuko being "speedy" for him to flush a shade of crimson that matched his robes.

Needless to say, the Fire Lord didn't get caught speeding again.


	4. Cobalt Blue

****Author's Note: ****This is my longest one-shot in the series so far, and also the first one from Zuko's perspective. It's more a series of musings on the color blue in general, but I did notice the particular shade of cobalt is the one repeated again and again in the Water Tribe.

**Cobalt Blue**

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><p>Zuko had always loved the color blue when he was very young. Perhaps it was because the palace was full of too much red – red robes, red curtains, red <em>bedsheets<em>. Red was everywhere. Such an angry color. It reminded him of the war, but it was fire too – and fire was in his blood.

Blue, though... Blue was the water of the turtleduck pond. Blue was the mask hanging in his mother's bedroom – the one she would look at often, and sometimes take off to look at when she thought Zuko was asleep (at least, on the nights he would run to her for comfort and ask to stay with her for the night.)

Of course, time would change that. After his mother disappeared, blue became the color of loneliness. He missed her sorely. The masks in her room grew dusty, no one there to touch them anymore.

Azula claimed the color after that. The day she taught herself to weild blue flames, Zuko couldn't help but wonder if it was to spite him – one way or another, the color only served to mock him. Her flames burned so much hotter than his, and Ozai's pride in her was scorching. He grew to hate the color, because it was everything he wasn't able to find.

After his banishment, blue continued to mock him. Day in and day out, blue often was all he could see. Ocean and sky. Wind and water. He looked at the sea as little as possible, but... After a time, he resigned himself to it. The waves became calming. Water soothed his inner storms. Sometimes his mind would drift back years, to those days he'd sit in his mother's lap and feed the turtleducks. He wondered if she was still alive, if he would ever find her.

She couldn't be more elusive than the Avatar, could she?

And then, everything changed again when he met _her_. Katara. Water mocked him once again, finding the Avatar before he did, and cobalt blue became the color he often looked for in a crowd. Because if he could find the Avatar's friends, the Avatar was never far away.

After he found her carelessly lost necklace, he found himself looking at it more often than he meant to. In the late evenings, he would take it out and look at the intricate carvings, run his thumb along the wave markings. Cobalt blue, color of water. He thought of his mother again.

When he found out it was _her _mother's, he honestly wasn't surprised.

(He did stop holding it so often, though. He didn't want that kind of bond with the peasant girl he barely knew. She was the enemy, he didn't need to wonder about her past - )

He was surprised much, much later – imprisoned with her under Ba Sing Se, when she slipped up and told him about her mother. About how the Fire Nation had taken her away.

He felt an unfamiliar pang in his chest, then – sympathy. And when he looked at her again, all he saw was a girl feeling the same pain he had felt so often. "I'm sorry. That's... something we have in common."

Commond ground was something dangerous to find in such a place, but he would never forget the way she turned to face him – her cobalt blue eyes wide in surprise, tears still trailing beneath them.

Years later, he'd say that moment was the moment he began to love her, though he didn't know it then.

After the war was over, after she came to work as an ambassador for the Water Tribe with him, he found himself in love with blue again. He dug through his mother's jewelry, looking for anything with a hint of cobalt in it – anything he could give to Katara, in hopes that she would realize it was his way of telling her the truth of his feelings for her.

It was on a trip to the Northern Water Tribe that he learned, through an off-handed remark, that her necklace was actually a betrothal necklace. Interested, he asked more about the custom, and found out that it was something the girl's suitor was to make for her, with their own hands, and give as an offer of marriage.

He knew hers meant so much more to her than anything he could give, but the seed was still planted in his head. When he returned home, he went to work – asking a metalsmith for guidance. He learned what oxides to add to the mix to change the metal's color, and what heat to set it to, and how to engrave it when all else was done.

The next full moon, he approached Katara before she went to her chambers, and asked her to come to the pond with him.

"Katara, I know we decided to just be friends after you defeated my sister. And... uh, I know we said anything else wouldn't work. Because the council would never agree to it, and Aang would freak out – actually, he might _still_ freak out – but..."

Her eyes had already gone wide, but they lit up when he pulled out the necklace he'd spent the last weeks working on and held it up between them.

"I don't care about any of that anymore. I love you. I'm never going to stop loving you. So... I'd be honored if you would stay. Be mine – my, my wife, that is. If that wasn't ob-"

She cut him off with a laugh, and he blushed in embarrasment, looking away.

"...Zuko, is this what you've been making all week? I wondered what you were burning your fingers on..." When he looked at her again, her cheeks were a deep, ruddy color as well, and he smiled at her, hope filling his heart again. She took it from him, then held it to her neck – and he was glad to see it would rest below her mother's perfectly.

"It's beautiful," she whispered, looking up to meet his eyes. "Help me clasp it, will you?"

"Is... Is that a yes?" He asked, even as he went behind her, deft fingers clasping it with ease.

She laughed again, then turned around and kissed him. It was the first time their lips met, and he felt the pull of the tide in her arms – and if this is what drowning felt like, he'd die a happy man.

"Yes," she finally told him when they broke apart. Her eyes glittered with the glow of the moon... and, as it turned out, a touch of mischief. "Though, Zuko... You do realize giving betrothal necklaces is only a custom in the Northern Tribe, right?"

He felt his cheeks grow hot again. "You mean there's a difference? Agni, I always screw up somehow..."

Clearly, he still had a lot to learn.


	5. Unrequited

****Author's Note****: ** **Now would probably be a good time for me to mention that, yes, all of these drabbles are set in the same 'verse as each other. Also, I imagine that the morning after Sozin's Comet went down, they just didn't know what to say to each other… and so a LOT of things went unsaid for a long, long time…

**Unrequited**

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><p>It was the komodo rhino in the room anytime they were together. The way their eyes would meet, then part a moment later. It was the one thing they had silently agreed to never speak of – each coming to the same conclusions on their own.<p>

Their friends all thought there had been an argument, some sort of falling out – though each would deny such a thing. "We're friends," they'd say. "Nothing's wrong." And they'd continue eating, or dancing, or doing whatever else they'd been doing – never looking the other's way except by chance, or accident.

But something was very, very wrong indeed.

Zuko finally caught on to that when Mai came to him one morning to let him know she was breaking up with him. "But you told me to never ever break up with you again!" He said, appaled.

"Yeah, I did," Mai said, eyes downcast. "That's why I'm breaking up with you, stupid."

"I thought you loved me - "

"I do," Mai sighed. "But I don't think you love me." There was a moment of silence, during which Zuko couldn't even bring himself to speak – but then Mai looked him in the eyes and spoke again herself. "If you can tell me you love me, I'll stay. But only if you mean it."

Zuko opened his mouth, but the words wouldn't come. Not without, as she so bluntly pointed out, feeling like a lie.

He looked aside and gave a sigh. "I loved you, Mai. I really did. But... I've changed too much since then."

"Yeah, I thought so." Mai sighed, too, and turned away for the last time. "Whenever you find the girl you really love, I hope you can be happy with her."

Zuko didn't watch her leave. He was too busy going to his room, collecting his own thoughts, to do that. Because he already knew who he really loved, and he knew she was still with someone else.

Katara would catch on some time after that – when Aang came to tell her they were going to travel again in search of more people that wanted to become Air Acolytes. Seeing the excitement in his eyes – the yearning to re-establish his people – it finally occurred to her that this was his dream, not hers.

"Why don't you go by yourself this time, Aang? I need some time to myself."

"But... Katara, I thought you wanted to see the world with me."

And she had wanted that, back when the south pole was all she'd known. But she'd seen plenty of it, and... "Not today, Aang. Maybe not any day, really."

Aang's face fell when he realized what she meant. "Does this mean you're breaking up with me?"

"...Yeah." She said, refusing to meet his eyes now. She didn't want to see the sad puppy look she knew he was giving her.

"Is... Is there any chance you'll change your mind?"

"I don't know," She admitted. "I need time to think."

"Well, let me know your answer," Aang said. The bitterness in his voice was loud and clear.

Within the week, Katara was on a ship back to the Southern Water Tribe, where she happily reunited with Gran Gran, Master Pakku, and Hakoda. She planned to stay there for a while, help them rebuild and even give lessons to a few younger waterbenders...

When she got a letter from Zuko one month after her homecoming – asking her if she was well, and wondering if she'd mind helping him with stuff in the Fire Nation for a while (no rush, he said, but she knew the droughts were terrible this year) she replied that very evening to let him know she was on her way.

No one said anything, but everyone knew.

Just because they each thought their love was unrequited, didn't mean it really was.


	6. Socks

**Author's Note: **Author's Note: ****The only warning I have for this one is for slight suggestive themes. (It might need a fluff warning too, though.) Zuko learns more of Water Tribe tradtions and customs, and gets a little surprise at the end.

**Socks**

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><p>One lesson Zuko learned early on in their marriage: when visiting the Water Tribe, always sleep with a pair of socks on. As Katara taught him well, it didn't matter that his blood ran hotter thanks to his inner fire, it still got really, really cold at the poles.<p>

He also learned that wasn't all bad, because the socks added an element of _intregue_ to their moonlit encounters.

Their honeymoon was a time of many firsts besides that, however – Katara showed Zuko the Northern Lights, which he told her people of his nation had called both "Icy Fires" and "Spirit Flames" in the scrolls that survived from before the Hundred Year War.

"Leave it to your people to see fire in the sky lights," Katara chuckled, kissing him again. "I like that, though. They do look like fire, except they come in all the colors..."

"But fire comes in all the colors, too - " Zuko said, and went on to tell her about his meeting with Ran and Shaw, and how the dragons had enlightened both him and Aang by showing them beautiful, rainbow colored flames. "It was amazing," he said, eyes sparkling in memory of that light. "It reminded me what so many firebenders have forgotten – that fire isn't just death, it is also life."

The first weeks of their life together were as warm as those remembered flames, and Zuko was almost sad to return home to the Fire Nation – he had enjoyed sleeping under the warm furs with Katara, keeping the cold at bay by curling up close to his new wife.

He soon found himself missing both that nest-like feeling (the sheets were so much thinner in the palace, and even after a short time under the Water Tribe furs, felt far too light) and the feeling of Katara's socked feet intertwining with his own.

However, he was surprised one evening a few months later when he came home from a meeting with the council to see Katara and his mother sitting together, each making something out of cloth. He smiled to see them working together, talking happily – it warmed his heart to know they got along.

His heart almost stopped when he saw what they were making, though -

Teeny, tiny pairs of socks.

"Mom, Katara? What're you making these... for?"

"It's a Water Tribe tradition," Ursa declared, sharing a glance with Katara, who only blushed and looked aside.

"A tradition?" He asked, confused. "What do you mean? Why - "

"Socks are the first thing you make for a new baby," Katara announced, cheeks still rosy. "Usually with help from your own mother, and from furs brought in by your husband – but..." She held up the pair she had made, carefully putting them in Zuko's hand. "M-Mom's not here, furs are a too warm anyway, so Ursa helped me find something we could use - "

Zuko, of course had frozen as soon as the word "baby" was out of Katara's mouth, but the feeling of the soft cloth in his hand finally brought out his smile. "...We're having a baby?"

He grinned as Katara nodded, and didn't notice his mother quietly slip away in his excitement. Of course, he'd end up panicking later, but for that moment nothing could be more perfect than Katara's smile and the way the little socks felt in his hand.


	7. Slow Dance

**Author's Note: **And with this, we come to an end of my Zutara Week one-shots. I hope you all enjoyed reading them as much as I enjoyed writing them!

**Slow Dancing**

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><p>The dance begins slow, and Zuko's feet are uncertain – his palms sweat as he clasps Katara's hands in his own and he glances beyond the ring of light surrounding the great bonfire to where his mother sits, smilng and cheering him on in her own quiet way.<p>

He turns to Katara again in time to stumble awkwardly and apologize, but she shakes her head and tells him it's alright.

He was always clumsy as a child, something Katara refused to believe until his mother told her a few stories about how he would trip over his own feet long after he learned to walk, and how her son is now far more graceful than she ever knew him to be.

He certainly doesn't feel graceful now, not with _her_ dancing beside him. She moves as water moves; like a river flowing from one bend to another, like the tide coming in to shore, like a gentle rain after a long drought.

"Sorry," he mutters as his foot finds hers again, and she sighs, tugging him along beside her.

"Relax," she whispers, eyes sparkling in the light of the flames. They have a life of their own, and Zuko is lost in them. "Your mother's right, Zuko. You're more graceful than you think. Just relax, don't over-think this."

He remembers watching his mother dance with his step-father earlier, and how graceful Ursa herself had been even after years without practice. "I thought you weren't allowed to dance in the Fire Nation," Katara had said, and Ursa had laughed dryly.

"In most places, no. Only the noble children were taught to dance in the capitol, if you can even consider it that. But Hira'a was far from the capitol." She smiled at her husband, sharing a knowing look with him. "We had much more freedom than most. Such a small, distant place... We were often overlooked, and happier for it."

Zuko gripped Katara's hand tighter, and then loosened his hold, shifting his feet in the dirt as he began to guide Katara through the dance. The drum beats were growing stronger, and his heart beat in time with them. He could feel the rhythm in his very blood.

Katara smiled as she fell into step with him, her body swaying with him. He felt free – like a dragon in flight. The rhythm came to a head, and stopped – and only in the sudden stillness, Katara's hair still swaying from their movement, did he realize how fast they had really been dancing.

He caught his breath slowly, and knew the other dancers were returning to the shadows to sit, talk, and take part in the celebratory feasts, but...

"Once more?" He asked, breathless from exertion.

"Yes," Katara said, and to the drums of their own hearts, they continued dancing slowly, surely... long after the moon rose into the dusky sky.


End file.
